This invention relates in general to the field of military and law enforcement training and more particularly to the use of simulation devices used for anti-personnel, anti-riot and anti-terrorist training. It applies where training in the use of pyrotechnic devices, such as Stun Grenades, is required to teach users how to properly deploy the actual devices. The described invention is also intended to permit training within areas and structures which might normally preclude the use of the actual devices or other existing training devices.
Military and law enforcement personnel are often required to deploy explosive or otherwise pyrotechnic devices during the performance of their duty. Such devices typically must be handled with great care and are expensive to use due to their destructive nature. They are restricted to being deployed only under tightly controlled conditions. This applies when such devices are used operationally, as well as in specialized training structures and remote locations during training.
Simulation training has been gaining in popularity over the past several years and devices that permit extremely realistic training for armed encounters have been introduced. For SWAT Team training and Counter-Terrorism or Anti-Riot training, police and military forces must be able to train as realistically as possible for personal safety as well as the safety of the general public. During actual encounters, these officers and soldiers will deploy pyrotechnic devices such as Stun Grenades, also known as Distraction Devices or Flash-Bangs. Examples of such grenades can be referenced in U.S. Pat. No. to Gold (U.S. Pat. No. 5,085,147), Barlog (U.S. Pat. No. 5,824,945), Hamilton (U.S. Pat. No. 4,976,201), Nixon III (U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,753), Pinkney (U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,328) and Brunn (U.S. Pat. No. 5,654,523).
To date, products which have been introduced as pyrotechnic training devices designed to replicate actual devices have been costly, dangerous and limited in their ability to be transported in a cost-effective fashion. Further, these training devices have been limited to possession by bona fide police and military agencies or civilian training institutions that must pay for expensive licensing to obtain access to these devices.
The described invention is not intended for actual use in combat settings nor designed for use as a weapon, but rather is specifically designed and contemplated as a training device to be used during simulations and for training in the use of the Stun Grenades and the like, including smoke and gas grenades.
It would therefore be desirable to have a training device that would permit safe and realistic training that fully replicates the operational features of the actual pyrotechnic device. Identical or close to identical size, weight, shape, function, and feel of the training device would permit trainees to experience all of the aspects to habituate them to the deployment of the actual device. It would be desirable that the training device would be rechargeable with inexpensive reloads that are not as restrictive for transportation and possession purposes as are currently available operational or training devices. This invention addresses those objectives.
The invention in its general form will first be described, and then its implementation in terms of specific embodiments will be detailed with reference to the drawings following hereafter. These embodiments are intended to demonstrate the principle of the invention, and the manner of its implementation. The invention in its broadest and more specific forms will then be further described, and defined, in each of the individual claims which conclude this Specification.
With the foregoing in mind, it is a principal object of this invention to provide a blank training cartridge that incorporates a delay feature that permits safe and easy reloading of a Training Device so that it can be reused a number of times, thus making it cost effective for training purposes. This part of the invention shall hereafter be called a xe2x80x9cDelay Cartridgexe2x80x9d. When the Delay Cartridge is loaded within a pyrotechnic body designed to make noise to simulate an explosion, the cartridge will be referred to as a xe2x80x9cDelay Blankxe2x80x9d. These may also be interchangeably referred to as xe2x80x9cReloadsxe2x80x9d.
According to one aspect of the invention a delay-blank cartridge is provided having a casing, a percussion-sensitive primer mounted at one end, the primer communicating through an internal passageway within the case (preferably provided by a sleeve) with a xe2x80x9clow gasxe2x80x9d, delay-burning composition contained within the case. Optionally, to ensure that the primer is able to ignite the delay-burning composition, an ignition composition may be placed between these two components of the invention on the side of the delay-burning composition opposite the primer and the first igniter. A second igniter may optionally be positioned to be initiated by the delay-burning composition once combustion has passed through the thickness of this composition.
The second igniter may then be positioned to communicate with the pyrotechnic material that is to be activated. In the application of a training grenade, this may simply be a non-percussion sensitive flash powder, a gas generant or other composition that is contained either in the casing of the cartridge itself, or extending outside the casing.
By use of the Delay Cartridge a method of ignition or dispersion of minuscule amounts of pyrotechnic substances may also be provided that will allow simulation of devices such as smoke grenades and chemical irritant grenades. This will provide trainees with feedback in the form of a visual signature for verification of delivery or wind drift considerations without the inherent visual or environmental contamination associated with operational devices.
These and other objects of the present invention may be achieved by combining the Delay Cartridge with a Training Device that includes a Conversion Fitting fitted into a case or body to adapt the body to receive a Reload. To this is added a Firing Assembly that will fire the Reload. Preferably the body of the Training Device replicates the exterior form of actual devices such as Stun Grenades, Smoke Grenades, Anti-Personnel Fragmentation Grenades, Mines and Booby Traps that would be used in an operational setting. The Conversion Fitting has a chamber that is shaped to receive the Reload and is engaged, e.g. threadably received, into the body of the Training Device. Using special adapters, a Conversion Fitting may also permit users in some cases to utilize the body of their normal operational device as a Training Device, having first rendered it permanently or temporarily incapable of accepting dangerous pyrotechnics through the installation of such a Conversion Fitting.
Because the invention contemplates using commercially available brass cartridge cases that are normally used in firearms, the finished cartridge may be formed in such a manner, and a Conversion Fitting chamber designed in such a way, that it would readily accept only a Reload, excluding by design similar live cartridges that are designed for use in firearms.
The Firing Assembly will provide further safety to users in that it can be manually armed and locked prior to attachment to the Training Device, after the insertion of the Reload into the Conversion Fitting, thereby protecting the Reload from being inadvertently activated prior to the Training Device being deployed in training. For further security the Reloads may be stored separately from the unarmed Training Device under high security arrangements.
To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the invention, then, comprises the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims, the following description and the annexed drawings following hereafter. This sets forth in detail certain illustrative embodiments of the invention. These are indicative, however, of but several of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed.